Police say they have arrested the evil hacker who tricked them into forcing 4 innocents to confess to planning massacres, after he was caught on camera delivering a taunting digital message to police by cat – and Japan’s media has wasted no time in painting him as the archetypal creepy otaku.

The 30-year-old IT worker was arrested in central Tokyo on charges of interfering with official business, made in relation to threats of indiscriminate knife murder made against Comiket 82 through the PC of one of his virus-infected victims.

The arrest looked to be suspiciously well attended by news cameras, with media reports gleefully dwelling on his plump, bespectacled appearance, otaku habits and love of cats.

Their innocence was only revealed when the hacker tauntingly contacted police and media with details of what he had done, humiliating police and courts utterly and causing yet another revelation into how Japanese police apparently secure many of their convictions.

One of the victims came forward as an anime director, and a student who lost his university place as a result of his forced confession and subsequent conviction elicited particular sympathy online. All their convictions were rapidly overturned.

He next famously had police searching the cat population of Kanagawa prefecture’s Enoshima Island, after he attached an SD card containing the “iesys.exe” virus he used to the collar of one of the cats living there.

Unsurprisingly considering their record on the case, police ended up using a low-tech method to get him – they trawled security camera footage from the area the messenger cat was found, and eventually managed to identify a “suspicious” man and motorcycle from them, and followed up their investigations from there.

More detailed hacking-related charges seem likely once police force him to confess.

For now, he categorically denies the accusations, saying “there is no truth to them whatsoever” – which may yet further humiliate police should they find nothing on the 3 PCs seized from his residence, as so far it would seem police only have circumstantial evidence that he may have attached an SD card to a cat.

Police do say he has a 2005 conviction for making similar online threats, and served jail time for the offence.

His motive was apparently a grudge against police, and a desire to avenge himself by humiliating them – the feline communique included a vengeful letter in which he complained of “having my life turned upside by police dragging me into an investigation despite my innocence.”

Curiously the online hoi polloi are still not entirely convinced police have their man:

“He sure humiliated the cops. I hope his lawyer is vigilant so they don’t make sure he ‘commits suicide’ whilst in custody.”

“If he really is the culprit, there’s probably nothing on his drives and he’ll get off if he keeps protesting his innocence. Though I expect the police will resort to ‘all means’ to make sure this doesn’t happen.”

“I can’t help but think they just looked at the camera footage and picked up someone who visited Enoshima to see the cats and had a prior conviction…”

Because the police is the only thing stopping whoever has a bigger gun than you from stealing all your property and butt-fucking you at their leisure.
Inefficient law enforcement is preferable to Mad Max economics.